Socio-cultural factors of risk and crisis communication: Crisis communication - or what civil protection agencies should be aware of when communicating with the public in crisis situations

摘要

Culturally-bounded assumptions and conventions strongly influence how communities make sense of risks and hazards and how these communities consider some ways of dealing with disasters more appropriately than others. By analysing differences and similarities in how people perceive and interpret disasters, as well as to whom the responsibility for risk prevention and crisis management is attributed in seven European countries, three specific ideal types of risk cultures emerged: state-oriented risk culture, individual-oriented risk culture and fatalistic risk culture. We will show in this paper that the three risk cultures can be identified on the risk management level, too. Consequently, the implications for crisis management and crisis communication in case of a disaster will be addressed for each of these risk cultures.